


I Think I Want To Marry You

by myownremedy



Category: Social Network (2010)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Marriage Proposal, Prompt Fic, Rule 63, cisgirl!Mark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-04
Updated: 2013-01-04
Packaged: 2017-11-23 15:19:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/623615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myownremedy/pseuds/myownremedy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark doesn't want to marry Eduardo. Except she kind of does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Think I Want To Marry You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silentcitylights](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentcitylights/gifts).



> Prompt: _girl!mark/wardo future AUish fic where mark finds a ring and freaks out and leaves because she thinks wardos proposing to her and wardo doesnt know what hes done wrong but then mark sort of realizes he does want to get married and proposes to him with that ring!! sorry if it's kind of vague omg_ and the first sentence was supplied.  
>  I didn't know if this was m/m or f/m so I tagged both, sorry. Unbeta'd. This may or may not be slightly cracky. Girl!Mark is an idiot when it comes to social relationships, like boy!Mark but I wrote her with more of a sense of humor.  
> Disclaimer: Mark YOU aren't a girl (i think), y'all fictional, y'all not dating, whatever, shut up, NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT WAS INTENDED.  
> For [Mia](http://isaclahey.tumblr.com/).
> 
> edit (4-13-15): this is a transformative work. I make no money off of it. I do not own what inspired this work (The Social Network), but I do own this work itself and hold full copyright over it. Thank you.

It’s the perfect ring. It’s absolutely perfect and so _her_ and that’s what scares Mark the most.

She stares down at the ring. The ring stares back.

Mark scowls.

“Mark?” she hears Eduardo call from their bedroom, and wow, she’s still getting used to that, that they’re living together. “Mark, did you take my sweat pants?”

Yes, yes she did – she’s wearing them with a hoodie and nothing else, standing in the kitchen and staring down at the ring in the box she fished out of his pocket with amazement.

It’s delicate and silver, with a modest sapphire in the middle. Not too frilly but not masculine, either. Beautiful. Perfect.

The blue was the color of the Facebook logo.

“Mark!” Eduardo sounds closer; Mark shoves the box into her hoodie pocket, turns to see him amble into the room in only his briefs. “Stop stealing my clothes,” he tells her, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her to him. “They don’t fit you.”

“Whatever,” Mark tells him, not really paying attention. She doesn’t even admire the golden expanse of Eduardo’s chest; she’s too distracted by the ring.

It feels like it’s burning a hole in her pocket.

 

Eduardo makes them breakfast, because Mark and the stove are arch enemies, and Mark sits at the counter and chews on her lip.

“I think marriage is stupid,” she announces to him, to his turned back.

It takes him a minute to respond. Mark can’t see his face, so she doesn’t feel bad when he asks, slowly: “Why?”

“Because its this patriarchal bullshit of demeaning a woman through legality and making her assume the life and family of her husband and makes her sacrifice her legal and financial independence.”

Eduardo turns off the stove and scoops their scrambled eggs onto two plates. “I had no idea you felt so strongly about this,” he says, handing her a plate. He looks calm. Sounds calm. “It almost sounds like you’ve been discussing gender roles with Chris.”

Casual. Very casual. Not upset. Not like he’s panicking or thinking up a counter argument.

“What brought this up?” Eduardo asks, still calm, like he doesn’t really care and Mark gives him some bullshit excuse about the royal wedding and he nods. They change the subject.

 

Mark spends her shower trying to figure out why he’s going to give her a ring, then, if not because he’s proposing. Is he cheating on her? No, that’s stupid – the ring is clearly for _her_. Her birthday was in May, so it’s not a birthday present. Is there some other event that entails gift exchanges? Their anniversary – is it soon? Fuck. She couldn’t remember.

“Mark!” Eduardo calls. “Hurry up or I’ll get in there with you and then we’ll both be late!”

“Fuck off!” She calls back. The water _is_ getting cold.

\---

The first thing Mark does when she gets to the office is corner Dustin and Chris in Dustin’s office.

“When is my anniversary with Wardo?” It comes out more like a bark then she intended, but it’s worth it because Chris and Dustin don’t burst into laughter immediately.

“October…12th,” Chris says after a pause.

Good. It was only August.

Dustin raises his eyebrows. “Did you really forget?”

“I,” Mark informs him, “am the youngest billionaire, _ever_ , and CEO of the world’s most successful company. I have more important things to worry about then _dates_.”

“I’d like to see you tell that to Wardo,” Chris says and Mark scowls at him.

“Get back to work!” She orders them. “Go…handle a press explosion or code something.”

“Did you _cause_ a press explosion?” Chris asks with an expression of mounting exasperation. Dustin just looks amused.

Mark doesn’t dignify that with a response. She turns on the heel (of her flip flop) and stomps back to her own office.

\---

The thing is, she is not the type of girl that men want to marry. She is 5’3 with explosive curly brown hair and a potty mouth. She wears hoodies and jeans to the office and sues anyone stupid enough to mess with her.

Men don’t marry women like her. Mostly they cower in terror and avoid her at all costs.

Mark doesn’t mind. So far it’s been working in her favor.

Eduardo…well, Eduardo has never made sense. He had always liked her, had asked her out almost as soon as Chris had introduced them.

Mark had declined, because a) she didn’t want to be the subject of a joke b) she didn’t want him to use her to rebel against his privileged stuck up tight ass family c) she liked this other guy named Eric and d) Eduardo was way too attractive for her.

Eventually he got it through what he calls “her thick skull” (which is inaccurate, by the way, she’s incredibly intelligent) that he likes her for her, and thinks she’s beautiful, or something, and eventually Mark had deigned to go out with him.

Facebook had, ah, complicated matters, but they figured it out.

That’s her version of events, anyway.

Eduardo marrying her, or _wanting_ to marry her, doesn’t make any sense. She’s Jewish and she’s rich and he ‘loves her’ (ok she loves him too) but she’s all wrong for him. His family doesn’t approve of her. She doesn’t know if she wants to have children. She’s never going to want to settle down and not be CEO anymore.

The image of Eduardo with someone else, another women, holding the hand of a dark eyed child, inserts itself into Mark’s mind.

She slams her laptop shut and marches out of her office.

That was not _allowed_ to happen.

\---

“Do you believe in marriage?” She barks at Chris and Dustin, who are still in Dustin’s office despite her telling them to get to work.

They stare at her.

“Because I don’t. I don’t get it. It doesn’t make any sense, it’s a patriarchal ritual of antiquity that means the women gives up financial and physical and legal independence and –”

Chris clears his throat. Mark shuts up, because Chris is _gay_ and if he ever got to marry Sean then none of what she is talking about would apply, at all.

_Good job, Marcella._

“I think marriage is important because it means commitment,” Chris says. He’s using his ‘diplomatic’ voice, like he’s trying to calm her down. Mark scowls at him. After a minute, she drops into a chair. “It’s…it’s the ultimate sign of ‘I love you, I want to be with you for the rest of my life.’ It’s commitment and stability and family.”

Mark wants to point out that she and Eduardo are _very_ stable, thank you, and she doesn’t need a ring on her finger to prove that, but Dustin cuts in.

“It’s also an important ritual, according to Marie,” Marie being his anthropologist girlfriend, “that signals adulthood. In the Middle Ages it was more of a financial investment or an alliance but now it’s come to mean love and respect and, yeah, commitment. What Chris said, basically.”

“It’s not Patriarchal, not really, because it’s a union between two people who love each other.” Chris adds, and Mark looks down at her hands.

She can feel them staring at her, knows what they’re thinking. She wonders if she should break the silence first or –

“Did Eduardo propose to you?” Chris asks gently. “Did you…did you say no?”

“No.” Because Mark cannot imagine saying ‘no’ to Eduardo, but she also can’t imagine him getting down on one knee – ok, yes she can because he’s _Eduardo_ and he still wears cuff links and gets his shoes shined, he’s just like that.

“Then why – Oh.” Mark pulls the ring box out of her hoodie pocket and pops it open, putting it on the desk.

Dustin and Chris peer at it.

“It’s…blue. Like, Facebook blue.”

“I _know_ ,” Mark says miserably.

(Eduardo had done that on purpose, she’s sure. He’s thoughtful like that.)

“I found it in his pocket and then I didn’t know what to do so I put it in my pocket and I sort of announced right after I found it that I don’t believe in marriage and now I don’t know what to do.”

“Oh my god,” Chris says faintly. Dustin looks slightly impressed.

“You really fucked that up,” he says. “Without even trying. That’s – that’s a new record for you, Mark.”

“Shut _up_ , Dustin.”

“So…Eduardo loves you, and he wants to marry you because he loves you, and you’re not ok with that?” Chris makes it sound ridiculous.

Mark feels ridiculous.

“Because I am my _own_ person,” she tells him, except that’s only half true because Facebook has consumed her soul and they all know it. “I like my last name. I don’t _want_ children. I want to be Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, not Mark Zuckerberg, wife of Eduardo Saverin.”

“Why can’t you be both?” Dustin asks.

And that’s…that’s not something she’s allowed herself to consider.

She turns, grabs the ring box and leaves without saying anything, because that’s just such a novel thought, something that is unfurling like lines of code in her mind’s eye and she has to sit down and actualize it, if she can just visualize it fully…

 

If they were married, she would be Eduardo’s, but Eduardo would be _hers_. What’s more, everyone would know it, because they would wear wedding rings. If they were married, it would be forever.

Mark _wants_ forever.

She can’t see Eduardo forcing her to stay home or have children if she doesn’t want too. She can’t see Eduardo forcing her to do anything she doesn’t want.

She can see Eduardo doing the ‘right’ thing and this seems like the ‘right’ thing to do – marrying her, she means. They live together. They’ve been dating for years. He lets her drive his car. She knows his pizza order.

Mark takes the ring box out of her pocket and snaps it open. The ring stares at her. She stares back.

Mark scowls.

 

“Where are you going?” Dustin asks when Mark marches past him. “It’s barely even lunch time.”

“To purpose to Eduardo!” Mark calls behind her. She can ask Chris for a description of Dustin’s face later.

\---

“Eduardo!”

“Mark?” Eduardo gets up from behind his desk and frowns at her. “Mark, is something wrong?”

“No,” she says.

“Oh,” he says. “Why…why are you here?” His face shifts to guilt and slight panic. “Did we have a lunch date?”

“No.” Mark says again. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Okay.” She can tell Eduardo is confused, but he nods and sits down again.

“No,” she says quickly. “No, please don’t sit.”

“Why?”

“Just. Stand up, ok?”

Eduardo stands up. Mark looks at him, notes he’s wearing cufflinks in a sort of absent way and nods to herself.

“Is the door shut?”

“Yes…”

“Good.” She drops to her knees.

“Mark?!” Eduardo’s voice goes high pitched. “Mark, office-sex – this isn’t a good time –”

“Will you shut up for a goddamn moment?” Mark hisses at him. Eduardo clamps his mouth shut.

“Oh, it’s only one knee, ok,” and then she produces the ringbox and pops it open.

Eduardo turns a truly fascinating shade of red.

“Eduardo Saverin,” because she looked it up on the internet – strangely there is an ehow of ‘how to propose’ – and this is how you do it, “Will you marry me?”

“What?”

That’s not what he was supposed to say. Mark flushes. “Will you marry me?” She repeats.

“That’s – that’s my ring.” Eduardo says, almost blankly. “How did you – oh my god, the sweatpants.”

“Will you answer the question already?” Mark snaps. “A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ will do.”

“Mark!” Eduardo says despairingly. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to work. I’m supposed to propose to you – except after that display this morning, when you announced you didn’t _believe_ in marriage because it’s designed to _oppress_ you or something – ”

“I changed my mind,” Mark says through gritted teeth. “I’m going to ask you one more time, asshole. Eduardo Saverin, _will you marry me?”_

“Oh my god,” he says faintly. “Yes. Yes, I will marry you.”

“Good.” Mark tells him, and slides on the ring. Eduardo will just have to get his own.

Eduardo is looking at her, looking at the ring on his finger. Mark uses his distraction to undo his zipper. “Now, what’s this about office sex?”

**Author's Note:**

> There really is an [eHow of how to propose to someone](http://www.ehow.com/how_6196248_propose-someone-marry.html), chiefly for idiots like Mark.  
> Mark's ring looks like [this](http://weddingandrings.com/wp-content/plugins/jobber-import-articles/photos/100642-antique-style-sapphire-engagement-rings.jpg) except better.  
> visit me on [tumblr!](http://marnz.tumblr.com/) prompts welcome.


End file.
